£21,000 from Share The Joy fund awarded
The ‘Share The Joy' round two recipients revealed
The ‘Share The Joy' round two recipients revealed
The fund, started with £100,000 investment from Lime, has already seen a total of £22,500 disbursed to nine organisations since the fund launched in July 2024. The nine organisations listed below will each receive a share of £21,000. The next funding round will open in February 2025, with further funding rounds running throughout 2025.
Recipients of funding in the second round include community groups that will enable older church goers in Tower Hamlets to cycle, as well as Charedi Jewish women in Hackney, as well as putting on more ‘bike buses’ for parents and kids to cycle in groups to school in Harlesden.
The Share The Joy Community Fund is a partnership initiative from LCC and Lime with support from LOUD Mobility. It was created to award grants to projects and community groups that help encourage more people to cycle in London, with a focus on improving Health and Wellbeing, Accessibility & Inclusion or Skills & Connectivity. Projects that support people underrepresented in cycling are also given additional priority.
“The fund was overwhelmed with excellent applicants for this round. The nine organisations chosen will help ensure diverse communities have greater access to the health and wellbeing benefits that cycling brings.
It’s important that London continues to get more people cycling in every community – bringing people together, maintaining clean air and improving social isolation.”
Guest panelist Rebecca Waters, NHS North East London
Alice Pleasant, Senior Public Affairs Manager for Lime said: “Lime is extremely proud to have started the Share The Joy fund, and to be announcing . another nine new organisations to receive funding. Londoners are increasingly turning to cycling as a safe, convenient, quick, healthy and green way to get around – we want to help ensure everyone can benefit from cycling in London. It’s been extremely inspiring to see and hear what previous recipients have done with their grants, and we can’t wait to see what our new recipients achieve.”
Speaking on the news, Tom Fyans, Chief Executive, London Cycling Campaign, said: “London already Loves Cycling – cycling already represents over a third of all tube journeys daily.
“Millions of Londoners cycle routinely in our city. But LCC is here to ensure everyone who wants to cycle can. We’re so excited to help these organisations and communities move forward on their cycling journeys.”
“We are overjoyed to have been awarded this grant,” said Amandine Alexandre, co-founder, Harlesden Mums Who Cycle, one of the recipients of the second round funding, “From January, we will be running a Friday bike bus between Willesden Green in Brent and West Hampstead in Camden and plan to start another bike bus in Harlesden in the spring.
“We are looking forward to giving children, as well as parents and carers, a joyful and energising start to their day once a week. Being physically active early in the morning helps children get ready for the school day. It’s also key to adults’ health and wellbeing.”
Harjit Lakhan or Sikh Cycling Club, Ealing, another second round recipient, said: “This support will enable us to prioritise underrepresented groups, including women, older riders, ethnically diverse groups, and geographically isolated or low-income communities in London, fostering an inclusive cycling culture and making cycling a more accessible and equitable activity for everyone.”
The Sikh Cycling Club, who provide cycle training for women and older people in Sikh community particularly in Ealing and Ilford
Another recipient of Share the Joy funding, Harlesden Mums Who Cycle who provide ‘bike buses’ for area parents and children to get to school in cycling groups
“One of the biggest problems C86erz faced was storage. I’d been reliant on good will when it comes to finding places to keep the goods.
Now everything is kept in one place: clothes, perishable and non-perishable goods, hygiene items and just anything else we’re able to distribute. And the best thing is that this shed will last up to 40 years.”
Verral Paul-Walcott, founder of C86erz, London wide project
The first round of funding was distributed earlier this year to a number of community groups/projects, including upCYCLE, a Lambeth based project that run bike repair workshops and distribute bikes to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have had access to one.
“Thanks to the Share the Joy fund, over the summer we ran bike repair workshops and two-hour cycling lessons for kids, with other organisations,” said Phil Dobson, Founder of upCYCLE, “Being able to deliver workshops to children was invaluable, not only to get them engaged in cycling, but also just to get them away from their phones and broaden their horizons. as part of their own projects.
“The funding went directly towards paying the people running sessions and new helmets. Every bike we gave away, we gave away with a helmet, so paying for them plus lights plus locks was helpful. I’d really recommend applying for a grant, not just for the money, but the connections you make are invaluable”.
The next round of funding applications will open in February 2025, with further funding rounds planned throughout 2025.
To find out more about the Share the Joy Fund, head over the page on our website.
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